The stolen works include a first edition of Alexander Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” from 1825, as well as texts by Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Gogol. The prosecutor described the act as a “true treasure heist” and spoke of a “massive, organized, carefully planned operation carried out with great care and cynicism.”
The thieves had visited the libraries as readers, photographed and measured the rare volumes, and later replaced them with nearly identical facsimiles. At the National Library of France (BnF) alone, the damage is estimated at 770,000 euros. Investigators suspect an organized network possibly linked to Moscow – tensions since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 are considered the backdrop.
The 50-year-old Mikheil Z. received the highest sentence: seven years in prison and a lifelong ban from entering France. Two of the convicted were sentenced in absentia, as they are imprisoned in Georgia, which does not extradite its own citizens. Mikheil Z. and Beqa T. had already been convicted in Lithuania for similar crimes.
Source: de.euronews.com
